The Law Office of Jason Coatney, LLC

09/11/2022

05/31/2020

Here is a concise statement from The Chief Justice of the United States writing for the Supreme Court denying Injunctive Relief for a church suing to open for services in spite of a quarantine order from the Governor of California. This excerpt shows you the balancing of interests a court will utilize in making a Constitutional determination.

SOUTH BAY UNITED PENTECOSTAL CHURCH, ET AL. v. GAVIN NEWSOM, GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA, ET AL.

ON APPLICATION FOR INJUNCTIVE RELIEF [May 29, 2020]

Chief Justice Roberts
..

Although California’s guidelines place restrictions on places of worship, those restrictions appear consistent with the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Similar or more severe restrictions apply to comparable secular gatherings, including lectures, concerts, movie showings, spectator sports, and theatrical performances, where large groups of people gather in close proximity for extended periods of time. And the Order exempts or treats more leniently only dissimilar activities, such as operating grocery stores, banks, and laundromats, in which people neither congregate in large groups nor remain in close proximity for extended periods.

The precise question of when restrictions on particular social activities should be lifted during the pandemic is a dynamic and fact-intensive matter subject to reasonable disagreement. Our Constitution principally entrusts “[t]he safety and the health of the people” to the politically accountable officials of the States “to guard and protect.” Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U. S. 11, 38 (1905). When those officials “undertake[ ] to act in areas fraught with medical and scientific uncertainties,” their latitude “must be especially broad.” Marshall v. United States, 414 U. S. 417, 427 (1974). Where those broad limits are not exceeded, they should not be subject to second-guessing by an “unelected federal judiciary,” which lacks the background, competence, and expertise to assess public health and is not accountable to the people. See Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, 469 U. S. 528, 545 (1985).

That is especially true where, as here, a party seeks emergency relief in an interlocutory posture, while local officials are actively shaping their response to changing facts on the ground. The notion that it is “indisputably clear” that the Government’s limitations are unconstitutional seems quite improbable.

08/20/2019

The front page of the Newspaper of Record in our Nation's capital. We claim to be a Nation of Equal Protection of the Laws and yet we continue to prosecute and incarcerate citizens for ma*****na. Shame on the United States Congress for not addressing this injustice. And shame on the courts for allowing these prosecutions to continue. Apply the laws equally.

The rest of the country is watching as West Hollywood moves to become the Amsterdam of America.

08/19/2019

Two stories about prosecutor malfeasance in the major metropolitan areas of Missouri. This is NOT the story of prosecutors in Missouri. Most prosecutors are loyal public servants who do great work for the citizens of Missouri.

A federal judge has held federal prosecutors in contempt for violating preservation orders and failing to cooperate with a special master’s investigation of video and audio recordings of attorney-client conversations at a detention facility in Leavenworth, Kansas. U.S. District Judge Julie A. Robi...

08/19/2019

The Missouri Supreme Court on Aug. 13 suspended indefinitely the law licenses of two former assistant circuit attorneys in St. Louis, scolding each for “repeated dishonesty.” Katherine Anne Dierdorf received a suspension of at least three years, and Ambry Nichole Schuessler received a suspension...

07/23/2019

Our panel of forensics skeptics considers how we make sure juries understand the limitations of nonscientific expert testimony.

07/23/2019

14 lawyers, scientists, and critics of modern forensics propose solutions to keep junk science out of the courtroom.

07/02/2019

More needs to be done to reset a system that has done untold harm over the past three decades.

03/19/2019

The task he faced was tremendous, and ultimately, defense attorney Jason Coatney couldn’t keep his client out of prison.